Looks like it’s prison stripes again for former Yankee pinstriper Darryl Strawberry.

The troubled ex-slugger spent his 40th birthday behind bars yesterday after he was booted from a court-ordered residential drug-treatment program for breaking its house rules.

His failure to complete the Phoenix House program in Citra, Fla. – about 80 miles north of Tampa – was a violation of his probation.

A correction official said he did not yet know what rule – or rules – Strawberry had broken.

“We do know it didn’t involve substance abuse or leaving the treatment facility,” said Joe Papy, regional director of the Florida Corrections Department.

Phoenix House officials would not comment.

A confused Strawberry, interviewed briefly outside the Marion County Jail, said he had not been accused of fighting or other infractions at the drug-treatment center.

“They just said I was discharged from the program,” he told the Ocala Star-Banner, adding he had considered his 10 months under house arrest at Phoenix House a success.

Strawberry is scheduled to appear today before Judge Florence Foster, who last May sentenced him to two years’ rehab at Phoenix House and a year of probation after he fled an earlier court-ordered treatment program and went on a four-day drug binge.

It was his fifth probation violation since September 2000.

Strawberry’s probation officer had urged Foster to jail the former Bronx Bomber for 18 months.

Foster warned Strawberry he was getting his last break from her: “You are at bat at the bottom of the ninth with two strikes against you. You are a proven winner on the field. Now you must prove you are a winner off the field.”

She drove the message home by also giving him an 18-month suspended sentence – which she could impose today.

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who last month said he’d give Strawberry a player-development job when he finished his rehab, issued a brief statement after yesterday’s arrest:

“The Yankees have long been supportive of Darryl Strawberry. I am sure we all regret things have not worked out as we hoped. At this point, however, it’s up to Darryl to be personally accountable.”

Strawberry’s drug-fueled run-ins with the law started in April 1999 when he was arrested in Tampa on charges of cocaine possession and solicitation of prostitution.

He was put on probation – which he violated in September 2000 when he left the scene of an accident while under the influence of medication.

In addition to his drug problems, Strawberry has undergone operations for colon and stomach cancer. Recent tests show no sign of cancer.